Today the Archbishop of St. Louis (Archbishop Raymond Burke) visited Kenrick-Glennon Seminary to dine with the seminarians in celebration of his 1st anniversary as Archbishop of the Archdiocese. The seminarians presented Archbishop Burke with a spiritual bouquet of many holy hours, and said they were proud of his courage in the face of adversity.
As I write this, most marchers have returned to their buses, planes, or cars and are now on the road home. We have finally left Union Station, and are expecting an 18-20 hour trip home (ugh...). I have a little time right now, so I am going to relate to you the happenings of this day.
After my last entry, I went to the hotel lobby and sold some Pro-Life Wristbands, which sold like hotcakes to many different youth! I stayed in the lobby for a while with many other seminarians who were waiting for our buses, in order to load our luggage on them. Some of the seminarians and I walked to Pennsylvania Ave. and 15th Street to meet with other Seminarians who were at other places, such as Planned Parenthood or the Youth Rally and Mass.
I don't think I truly knew the meaning of 'bundled up' until today. For the first time in my life, I am wearing four layers of clothing! Four layers! That's a lot. But before I talk about that, I shall mention the Mass my fellow St. Louisans and I attended this morning.
I woke to the shrill sound of our room's alarm around 5:30 a.m. (4:30 St. Louis time), and realized that, because I pressed the 'Snooze' button, I was obliged to get out of bed and take the first shower. After everyone was ready to go, we walked to a small but beautiful Catholic Church in downtown D.C., "Queen of the Rosary". Of course, something on this trip had to go wrong -- I forgot my camera -- so you will not be able to see any pictures.
News flash: [ooh! I like the italic 'flash!'] After 11:30 p.m. tonight, I will no longer have Internet access, and will, therefore, not be able to update this blog, until about 1:00-3:00 on Tuesday (after the March, I'll be jumping on the bus and driving home for 18 hours... at least...). Please pray for a safe return trip for all marchers! I will finish off the website while on the bus so I can simply post everything right when I return. Good night!
Sorry I haven't blogged at all until now, but I've been doing many different things today and haven't had the time...
I woke up around 8:30 a.m., had breakfast, then left for Mass at the National Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (link to pictures below), and went from there to many other activities. The group of seminarians I was with took a tour of a theological seminary building on the Catholic University of America campus, led by David Skillman. We then travelled via the Metro to our hotel for a refreshing break, and hopped onto the Metro again. After much debate, we decided to go to the Natural History Museam (about 1/2 mile from our hotel), and to the art museum from there. We dined at Johnny Rocket's in the Pentagon City Mall, and finally returned back to our hotel room (where I am now!).
After a some interesting experiences on the final six hours of driving (more on that later...), we arrived at our hotel around 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time). The hotel is a very nice four-star, with plenty of room in the lobby, convention halls, and rooms (in fact, this is the hotel I lodged in three years ago!).
More about the road: Many prayers were said for our safe passage, and none were wasted. Because of a 4"-6" snowfall (with more falling while we were driving), the roads were quite treacherous, especially for many two-wheel-drive cars (which seemed to be plentiful today). Many times we would be glancing out the window watching a car go wily-nily through lanes of traffic, coming within a foot or two of hitting the bus -- luckily we saw no accidents, and most people regained control of their cars.
Please continue praying for safe passage for those who are still on the road, and for a safe return trip!